Courtesy of Gunawan

While many of those in business might obsess over the whole economic crisis nightmare, Gunawan T. chose to find a new opportunity to smile about.  

He searched for opportunities as far as Europe, but once he found one, it led him back to Indonesia. The opportunity was to develop Indonesia’s natural wonder, temulawak, also known as Javanese turmeric.

“It was around 1997 and 1998, and my pharmaceutical business had been badly hit by the economic crisis,” recalls Gunawan, the man behind PT Helmigs Prima Sejahtera, a company focusing on temulawak products.

The company’s core business when Gunawan first established the company in 1993 had originally been chemical drugs.

“The pharmaceutical business greatly depends on imported materials – about 99 percent, so we were greatly affected by the crisis,” he says.  

As a businessman, he had no choice but to find other ways to survive. He went to Europe and Japan to find out if there were any business opportunities he could follow up.  

What he found was an unexpected revelation. As someone who has dealt in depth with chemical substances, Gunawan’s eyes were opened to the fact that nature was actually a better source of medicines.

“When I was in Europe, I found out the people avoided chemical substances as much as they could,” said the graduate of chemical engineering from Taiwan University.

“Even when they are sick, they won’t easily go after antibiotics like most Indonesians do. They tend to choose natural-based medicines.”

In the Netherlands, his observation was tickled further when he saw the locals had Indonesia’s jamu (herbal drinks) when they got sick.

“That was when I told myself: ‘This is how Indonesians should be – they should go back to nature, go back to our own jamu’,” he said.

So Gunawan returned home, thinking hard about which of Indonesia’s natural wonders deserved more research.

“Of course, Indonesia is rich in herbs,” he says. “But I thought, we must develop those that have high benefits, yet are still not known by many people.”

He then looked to the European market to discover the current trend in natural remedies. He found the trend was for curcumin – an ingredient found in turmeric, a ginger-family plant native to India and Southeast Asian countries.

Curcumin has been found to be able to cure many ailments, from swelling, stiff muscles, gastric and digestive problems to more complicated illnesses like hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, psoriasis and cancer.

“The whole world has been talking about how turmeric can be a natural healer because of the curcumin properties contained in it,” he says.

“So I decided to study curcumin, and find out whether there were other local herbs than turmeric that were also rich in it.”

From Gunawan’s studies on several herbs, he discovered that temulawak – the “twin” of turmeric – contains more curcumin than turmeric.

He also found that compared to turmeric, temulawak was a better option as it contains no bisdesmethoxycurcumin, a substance that could slow down the bile flow.

“After five years of thorough research with a German company, we finally found the formula to produce curcumin extracts from temulawak – all in a hygienic and modern way.”

From that moment onwards, he changed the focus of his business to herbal-based products, particularly those derived from temulawak and noni fruit (an anti-carcinogenic
substance).

Hygiene and modernity is one thing, but Gunawan went further to turn the bitter temulawak into something tasty and refreshing. His innovations include making zesty temulawak effervescent tablets, canned health drinks and even xylitol candies – products that suit busy lifestyles.

“Introducing temulawak to the public is surely a real challenge,” says Gunawan, who first introduced his temulawak innovations in late 2001.

“That’s because people tend to have a mindset thinking that temulawak tastes like hell.  

“Even when we made our products tasty, they were still not interested when they heard the name temulawak. The image of a bitter-tasting herb is ingrained in their mind.”

It’s not just a matter of image, he adds – most Indonesians have no idea what temulawak can do for them. He said there are still many people who associate temulawak only with its ability to increase one’s appetite, making them fear they would gain weight for consuming it.

“This has made them afraid of trying temulawak drinks, although actually they should be more worried if they lose their appetite as that could be a sign they have poor health,” he says.

“So, for me, educating consumers is the hardest obstacle in this business.”

Because of this, Gunawan says he prefers to introduce his temulawak products through exhibitions, where he can pass on free temulawak drinks to people so they can taste them.

“The [negative] image of temulawak is starting to change now, especially as people have begun to notice its benefits,” says Gunawan, who exports his products to Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, The Philippines, Thailand, Canada, the Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates.

In the international market, he says, temulawak began to receive recognition as well. In Yonsei University in South Korea, for example, intensive research into temulawak has been conducted to transform the herb into other products like anti-dandruff shampoo and toothpaste.  

“The world began to notice temulawak now, so we, Indonesians, must take this chance to develop temulawak because this herb is actually from Indonesia,” says Gunawan, who’s currently developing cosmetics based on temulawak.

The world’s interests in temulawak, he says, can be seen from some efforts made by some scientists who tried to cultivate temulawak in Korea.

The efforts, however, were unsuccessful. This, he says, supports the idea that Indonesia is the best place to cultivate temulawak and that the best temulawak is from Indonesia.

“An Indonesian professor in Yonsei University has even been approached by Malaysians to research temulawak because they’re planning to patent it,” Gunawan says.  

This, he says, is an alarming warning to the Indonesian government to start paying more attention to temulawak, as it has the potential to generate dollars for the country – perhaps as ginseng has for
South Korea.

“So, we must work to promote temulawak to the world and make it one of our most valuable assets.”

Popular

Kadin urges stability after Constitutional Court ruling

Jokowi says transition to new government to begi

BCA loan disbursement surges 17.1 percent yoy in first quarter